Prior to its activation and use in a wireless network, a mobile telephone must be provisioned for service. Provisioning includes, at a minimum, programming the mobile telephone with a telephone number, and programming the wireless network with the serial number and telephone number of the mobile telephone. Thus programmed, the mobile telephone and wireless network are enabled to carry telephone calls between the mobile telephone and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Provisioning may also include programming the wireless network and mobile telephone to support one or more optional feature for the mobile telephone, such as call forwarding, three-way calling, voice messaging, short messaging and paging.
To date, provisioning/programming of a mobile telephone has largely been done on the premises of the vendor or distributor of the telephone. A data port on the mobile telephone is used to connect the telephone to a programming system that uploads provisioning data into the telephone, such as the telephone number assigned to the telephone, in order to program it for use in the wireless network. Alternatively, the telephone is programmed through its key pad. This approach, while sound and secure, requires the undesirable step of programming/provisioning the mobile telephone before it can be delivered to a subscriber. The ability to deliver a mobile telephone directly to a subscriber without first having to provision the telephone provides obvious advantages in the speed of delivery to the subscriber, and the potential to simplify the provisioning process. Also, the ability to re-provision a mobile telephone over-the-air without returning the phone to a service center also has obvious advantages.
An alternative over-the-air (OTA) service provisioning (OTASP) approach has thus been defined by a standard body so that a mobile telephone can be provisioned over-the-air using the wireless network. The requirements of this standard are defined in IS-683 (also known as PN-3889), published by the Telecommunications Industry Association (T.I.A.), the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference. In its most basic form, this approach provides that a mobile telephone is temporarily provisioned to allow a subscriber using the telephone to call a customer service center, through which long-term provisioning can be obtained. The service center establishes a provisioning communication link with the mobile telephone through the SS7 network and the mobile switching center (MSC) supporting the call. Using this communication link, the mobile telephone can be provisioned over-the-air by wireless short message commands sent to the telephone, and using provisioning information sent by the mobile telephone back to the service center over the communication link.
While the IS-683 standard specifies the basic messaging to be supported by the mobile telephone and the wireless network to facilitate OTA provisioning, it does not specify a system-level architecture for the software and systems required to support and implement the messaging. The present invention addresses these architectural needs.